For my challenge this week I wanted to push myself to meet some of my neighbors. I haven’t been in my new place for very long so I figured it was a perfect time to try and introduce myself to those around me. I am also in a perfect position for this because I now live in a very nice and quiet little community that I intend on staying in for a while. I was able to meet both my neighbors closest to me and was even able to exchange some items that I don’t use for things they no longer needed too. I was really grateful to have branched out and was able to reuse some items that may have gotten thrown away. I will definitely have to keep pushing myself to say hi to some of the other neighbors around me.

This may not be much, but my dog was very sick and I spent the rest of my day taking care of her. Even though my dog is not a group of people, she is still community to me because she is my Emotional Support animal, and she emotionally supports me, and it was a way of giving back to her for all she does for me.

This was an interesting one, because it is such a small step but makes a big difference. I also took it a step further and only used cold water to brush my teeth. It did not make much of a difference in br4ushing my teeth, and it's not uncomfortable, do it's an easy and sustainable way to save water. Which begs the question, why leave the water running when brushing my teeth to begin with? In short I don't know how this even became a habit. Maybe other people can relate to this, but when leaving the water running, I tend to assume that I might need more water to wet my toothbrush later on, which usually never comes.

This week for my eco-challenge, I decided to focus more on my health and take a closer look at the small things I consume every day. I started thinking about whether those things are healthy not just for my body but also for the environment. For example, I eat LARA bars almost every day, but after doing more research and looking deeper into the brand, I realized it's not something I want to support. It's also not as nutritious as I thought. This made me realize how many small habits we repeat without even noticing. Sometimes we support things we don't actually agree with, just out of routine. Removing this one item from my daily life might seem small, but over time it can have a meaningful impact on both my health and the environment.

This week I decided to do several actions related to water to reduce my overall use. I realized how much water goes into everything, the food I consume, the products I use including materials/clothing and plastic products: it’s been very eye opening and it’s concerning how much water is wasted every day. I tried to conserve toliet water and only flush when necessary. This was difficult because I didn’t want to leave anything in the toliet, but I tried to as often as possible. I also didn’t run water while I was brushing my teeth and cleaning, only turning on the tap when necessary. I took shorter showers and limited them to a few less days a week than usual. I hope these things can help conserve water and I will continue to do so to try and conserve how much water I use, at least I will be mindful.

This week I researched which foods use the most water in their production. I learned that we actually consume the most water through the foods we eat instead of things like long showers or using the toilet, though reducing the use of those helps as well. In terms of unprocessed foods, beef takes the most water to make, with one 6 ounce steak needing 674 gallons of water. To my surprise, nuts also need lots of water, especially almonds, cashews, and pistachios. Rice also takes a lot of water to grow as well as wheat and corn, all of which are staple foods. A singular egg takes 52 gallons of water to produced. I also learned that there are 3 kinds of "water footprint" which is the water usage, being blue, green, and grey. Blue is surface and ground water, green is rainwater, and grey is water used to dilute waste to maintain water quality. I had never heard of the last one before and didn't know that that was a tactic. When it comes to animal products, animals raised on farms where they get their food through foraging use mostly green water, meaning that their waste is much less than farms with supply their animals with corn or soy feed. Through doing this challenge I feel much more empowered in terms of knowing the processes that go into making my food because I realized that I was assuming that water use was just about watering crops/keeping animals hydrated when it's much deeper than that. This is also yet another reason why I would like to try eating less meat. Doing this challenge made me reflect on droughts around the world, like the water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa, where residents of this major city were thought to reach a point where water would be rationed out to them in mere gallons. That a single 6 ounce steak needs almost 700 gallons of water to produce makes me realize how much we in the US are eating foods that are maybe not necessary or indulgent in terms of water usage and how this is affecting the planet and other countries. We need to find more eco-friendly ways to produce the food that we eat or otherwise stop eating those foods altogether. It would be challenging to give up eating meat or even just eat it less, but knowing that it would make a difference in hundreds of gallons feels tangible and significant.

The topic chosen this week is water, and the task chosen is 1, to study water justice in Oregon. 2. Practice water conservation in daily life, such as reducing shower time.

I decided to cut down on plastic use, which can negatively affect marine life. Specifically by cutting straws out of my life altogether (hopefully). I actually have many glass and metal straws at home that I use when making drinks of any kind at home, but I never bother to bring them with me when going out. This, of course, leads to receiving plastic straws from any place serving food/drinks that have them. Putting an effort towards bringing at least 1 reusable straw with me or even simply having one on me at all times is a great way to cut back even during impulse buying.
One problem I found is that my love for boba tea makes bringing my straw difficult due to the size difference of the straws necessary for boba drinks. So I went and bought a metal boba straw as well for this very purpose!
My current struggle at the moment, despite my excitement with my new personal "no plastic straw initiative," is that after using said straw while out and about, I am left with an unclean straw and no container to put it in. Even if I did have a container or pouch of some kind to put the straw in, it would inevitably get quite dirty. If this is a reality I have to accept to be free of plastic straws, then so be it, but if anyone has any recommendations in terms of a way to clean a straw on the go, or a type of reusable straw container that fulfills its purpose wonderfully, please let me know!

This week, I tried to be extra conscious of my water use in the house for things like showering, washing dishes, and doing laundry. I conserved water while washing dishes by turning the water off while I was washing and just turning it on quickly to rinse. I also reused leftover water from cooking projects (like making pasta) to water my garden. I tried to be as efficient as possible with laundry, doing full loads on cold to get the most out of the water I used. I have been more aware of how long my showers are, and I generally tend to take 10 minutes or so. I only shower once every 3 days though so that isn't an area where I feel like I need to cut back necessarily.

For this week’s eco-challenge, I focused on conserving water by shortening my shower time. This is a habit I’ve practiced for quite a while. Although my showers aren’t always exactly five minutes, they usually stay under ten. Originally, I began taking shorter showers to save time, not necessarily out of environmental concern. But looking back, I realize that this simple habit has helped reduce water waste both in my dorm and at home.